Narratives on the Collection of the Qur’ān by ‘Alī(rta) (part 2/3)

Narratives on the Collection of the Qur’ān by ‘Alī(rta) (part 2/3)

About Hawdhah ibn Khalīfah, al-Mizzī[1] records that in the opinion of Yahyā ibn Ma'īn he is da'īf in what he narrates from 'Awf.

iii. In the opinion of Abū Hātim, Ma'mar ibn Rāshid makes mistakes in what he has narrated whilst residing in Basrah[2]and we know that Ayyūb ibn Abī Tamīmah al-Sakhtiyānī is a Basran.[3]

iv. Halbī in his Kashf al-Hathīth records about Abū al-'Abbās ibn 'Uqdah (Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'īd):[4] Some regard him to be da'īf and others as reliable (da''afahu ghayru wāhidinwa qawwāhu ākharūn). According to al-Dhahabī, he would not fabricate narratives but would narrate gharā'ib and manākīr and narrate a lot from unknown people (kathīr al-riwāyah 'an al-majāhīl).

v. There is an unspecified narrator between al-Haskānī and al-Hasan ibn 'Abbās rendering this variant as broken (munqati').

vi. Al-Hasan ibn 'Abbās is regarded as extremely weak by both Sunnī and Shiite works. In fact, Ibn Hajar has quoted al-Najāshī's jarh on him:

And he [--Ibn Najāshi --][5]has called him da'īfunjiddan. He has a book on the blessings of Sūrah Qadr which has inauthentic narratives, discrepancies in its words and cannot be relied upon. And 'Alī ibn al-Hakam said: "He is da'īf and his narratives cannot be relied upon." And it is said that he used to fabricate Hadīth.[6]

As pointed out earlier by Ibn Hajar, there is inqitā' in these narratives.

Now if it is considered that Ibn Sīrīn's informant was 'Ikramah, as is the case with the narratives attributed to 'Ikramah, even then the issue of inqitā' stands as 'Ikramah was not a witness to the events reported in these narratives, as pointed out earlier.

V Representative Texts: Shiite Sources

We now take a look at some of the representative narratives about the collection of 'Alī (rta) recorded in Shiite Sources.

When 'Alī saw their betrayal and insincerity, he confined himself to his house and set about to arrange and collect the Qur'ān. He did not leave his house until he had collected it and it was [scattered] in sheets and wood pieces having inclined edges and thin pieces of leather.

When he had collected all of it and written it down by his hand, the tanzīl and the ta'wīl[8], the abrogating and the abrogated verses, Abū Bakr sent for him to come and pledge allegiance to him. 'Alī sent his response thus: "I am busy and I have sworn to myself that I would not wear my cloak except for the prayer until I have arranged and collected the Qur'ān."

So they kept silent and left him alone for some days. He then collected it in a single cloth and sealed it and went to the people who were gathered around Abū Bakr in the Prophet's mosque. He then loudly declared to them: "O People! Ever since the death of the Prophet, I have been busy in his ceremonial bath and then with the Qur'ān until I have collected all of it in this single cloth. There is not a verse revealed which I have not collected and there is not a verse which the Prophet has not recited to me and not taught me its explanation."

Then 'Alī told them: "[This is] lest you might say in future: 'We were not aware of it.'"[9]He went on to say: "You should not say on the Day of Judgement that I had not called you to my help and I had not reminded you of my right and I had not called you to the Book of God from the beginning to the end of the Book."

'Umar replied: "What you have with you is of no use to us because of what we have with us of the Qur'ān." 'Alī then [went and] entered his house.[10]

Talhah said: "…O Abū al-Hasan! There is something I want to ask you about. I saw you come out with a sealed cloth and say: 'O People! I have remained busy with the ceremonial bath, enshrouding and burial of the Prophet and I then I turned my attention to the book of God until I collected all of it and not a letter was left out.' So I have not seen that book which you wrote and compiled. And I saw 'Umar when he became the caliph ask you to send it over to him but you refused. Then 'Umar called over people and wrote out verses of the Qur'ān over which two witnesses testified, and left out verses on which only one person testified. And 'Umar said while I was listening: 'In the battle of Yamāmah, people have been killed who knew verses no one else knew.' And a goat came over to a sheet while the scribes of 'Umar were writing and ate it and took away what was in it and among the scribes on that day was 'Uthmān; so what do you say?

And I heard 'Umar and his companions who wrote [the Qur'ān] in his times and in the times of 'Uthmān say: 'Sūrah Ahzāb was as long as Sūrah Baqarah and Sūrah Nūr had one hundred and sixty verses and Sūrah Hujurāt had ninety verses.' What is all this?

May God have mercy on you, what stopped you from revealing what you had collected for the people? And you had witnessed that 'Uthmān had taken what the scribes had collected for 'Umar and he had urged people to gather on one reading and had destroyed the codex of Ubayy and Ibn Mas'ūd by burning them. What is this?"

Amīr al-Mu'minīn 'Alī replied: "O Talhah! Every verse that God has revealed to Muhammad is with me through his dictation to me and every allowed and prohibited thing and every directive and injunction and anything which the ummah requires till the Day of Judgement is written with me in my writing through the dictation of the Prophet even the diyat of a scratch [on the skin]."[11]

After this 'Alī (rta) makes some more points, but since they do not answer the question raised by Talhah, Talhah says:

"Why is it O Abū al-Hasan that you have not answered the question I asked you about revealing to people the Qur'ān you had collected." He replied: "I deliberately desisted from replying to you. So tell me is what 'Umar and 'Uthmān wrote the whole of the Qur'ān or is there anything in it which is not the Qur'ān?" Talhah said: "Indeed, the whole of the Qur'ān." 'Alī continued: "If you adhere to what is written in it, you will be saved from the fire of Hell and enter Paradise because in it are our arguments and a mention of our rights and a mention of the obligation of obeying us." Talhah then said: "It would suffice for me if this is what the Qur'ān contains." He further said: "Please tell me of the Qur'ān that is with you and its interpretation and of knowledge of what is forbidden and what is allowed. Whom will you give it to and in whose custody will this Qur'ān be after you?" 'Alī replied: "I will give to the person the Prophet had directed me to." Talhah asked: "Who is he?" 'Alī replied: "My successor and the person who is the foremost among people after me: this son of mine, al-Hasan. At his death, he will then give it to this son of mine, al-Husayn and then it will keep passing among their descendents until the last of them meets the Prophet at his fountain. They will remain with the Qur'ān and the Qur'ān will remain with them. They will not leave it and it will not leave them."[12]

It is reported in a narrative of Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī that when the Prophet died, 'Alī collected the Qur'ān and came over to the Muhājirūn and the Ansār and presented it to them the way the Prophet had directed him. When Abū Bakr opened it, on the very first page of it he saw [a mention of] the misdeeds of the people (فضائح القوم). 'Umar leapt and said: "O 'Alī! Take it away; we do not need it." 'Alī took it and returned. They then called for Zayd ibn Thābit, who was a reader of the Qur'ān. 'Umar said to him: " 'Alī came over to us with the Qur'ān and in it were mentioned the misdeeds of the Muhājirūn and the Ansār and we are of the opinion that we should arrange the Qur'ān and leave out the misdeeds and condemnation of the Muhājirūn and the Ansār." Zayd agreed and said: "If I am able to arrange the Qur'ān as you have asked and 'Alī reveals the Qur'ān he has arranged, will this not nullify what you have done?" 'Umar said: "What should be the plan?" Zayd said: "You know better of it." 'Umar said: "What better a plan than we kill him and be in comfort." So he planned to kill him through Khālid ibn al-Walīd but was not able to and an explanation for this has been mentioned earlier. When 'Umar became the caliph, he asked 'Alī to hand him over the Qur'ān so that he could alter what was between 'Alī and the people. So he said: "O Abū al-Hasan! If you can bring over the Qur'ān you had brought to Abū Bakr so that we can bring a consensus over it." 'Alī said: "Alas! This is no longer possible. I had brought it over to Abū Bakr to leave all of you with no excuse so that you would not say on the Day of Judgement: 'we were not aware of it,' or say: 'you had not brought it to us.' Only the pure and the successors among my children touch the Qur'ān which is with me." 'Umar then said: "Is the time of revealing it known?" 'Ali replied: "Yes; when the al-Qā'im from my descendents arrives, he will reveal it and will urge people to it and the practice will be according to this Qur'ān."[13]

Al-Hasan said: "We Ahl al-Bayt say: 'The leaders of the Muslims are from us and the khilāfah should be rightfully among us only and God has made us its recipients in His book and in the Sunnah of His Prophet. True knowledge is with us and we are its worthy beneficiaries. All of it is written with us in totality and everything which is to happen till the Day of Judgement even the diyat of a scratch [on the skin] is written with us in the writing of 'Alī through dictation of the Prophet. There are people who think that they are more worthy to it than us and even you O Ibn al-Hind! You claim and assert this. 'Umar had sent a message to my father: "I want to write the Qur'ān in a mushaf; so send to me what you have written of it." So 'Alī came to him and said: "By God! You will have to kill me if it is to come to you." He said: "why?" He said: "Because [in the verse:] 'And the deeply rooted in knowledge,' I was meant by God and not you and your companions." 'Umar became angry at this and said: "O Son of Abū Tālib! You think that there is no one else who has knowledge. So anyone who reads any portion of the Qur'ān bring it over to me." If a person would read what he had with him and another person would also have it, 'Umar would write it otherwise he would leave it. Then they said: "A lot of the Qur'ān was lost by him." They have told a lie. By God! It is safely lodged with its worthy recipients.'"[14]

Abū 'Abdullāh said: "The Prophet said to 'Alī: 'O Alī! The Qur'ān is behind my bed-sheet in the mushaf and in pages of silk and in paper. Get hold of it and collect it and do not lose it the way the Jews lost the Torah.' So 'Alī went and gathered it in a yellow cloth and then sealed it in his house and said: 'I will not wear [my cloak] until I have collected it.' And if a person came to him, he would go out to meet him without his cloak until he had collected it." Abū 'Abdullāh said: "And the Prophet had said: 'Had people read the Qur'ān in the way it was revealed no two of them would have differed.'"[15]

Sālim ibn Salamah said: "A person read the Qur'ān before Abū 'Abdullāh and I heard words of the Qur'ān which were not according to what people would read. At this, Abū 'Abdullāh said: 'Refrain from this reading. Read what the people read until the al-Qā'im arrives. When he arrives, he will read the book of God on his way and will reveal the mushaf which 'Alī had written.' He further said: ' 'Alī had taken this mushaf to the people when he had completed it and told them: "This is the Book of God the way God revealed it to Muhammad and I have collected it between two covers." They replied: "We have it with us in the form of a collected mushaf in which is the Qur'ān, and we do not need what you have in it." 'Alī said: "By God! You will never ever see it after today. It was my responsibility to inform you about it once I had collected it so that you can read it."'"[16]

In the narratives of Abū Rāfi', it is found that the Prophet in his last illness told 'Alī: "O 'Alī this is the book of God. Get hold of it." So 'Alī collected it in a cloth and went to his house. When the Prophet died, 'Alī sat down to arrange it in the way it was revealed and he was aware of this.[17]

Al-Shirāzī in his Nuzūl al-Qur'ān and Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb in his tafsir reporting from Ibn 'Abbās about the verse لا تُحَرِّكْ بِهِ لِسانَكَ([O Prophet!] do not move your tongue …) mentions that the Prophet used to move his lips at the time of revelation in order to memorize it. He was told not to move his tongue to swiftly acquire it before it was being read out to him. As per the verse إِنَّ عَلَيْنا جَمْعَهُ وَ قُرْآنَهُGod has guaranteed the Prophet that 'Alī will collect it after him. Ibn 'Abbās said: "So God collected the Qur'ān in the heart of 'Alī and 'Alī compiled it in six months after the Prophet's death."[19]

Jābir said that he heard Abū Ja'far say: "Only a liar can say that he has collected the whole of the Qur'ān in the way it was revealed. No one collected or memorized it in the way it was revealed except 'Alī ibn Abī Tālib and the imāms after him."[20]

Asbagh ibn Nubātah said: "I heard 'Alī say: 'I envision the 'Ajam with their tents in the mosque of Kūfah teaching people the Qur'ān in the way it was revealed.' I asked him: 'O Commander of the Faithful! Is it not in the form it was revealed.' He replied: 'No. The names of seventy people of the Quryash and their forefathers have been deleted from it. Only the name of Abū Lahab remains in order to hurt the Prophet because he was his uncle.'"[22]

'Alī sent them a message: "There is no way I can come out because I am busy in the collection of the Book of God which you have thrown away and your worldly desires had made you disregard it and I have sworn that I will not come out of my house and not wear my cloak on my shoulders until I have collected the Qur'ān.'"[23]

Ja'far ibn Muhammd reported from his forefathers: "When the Messenger of Allah died, I became involved in his ceremonial bath and enshrouding him and completing other matters concerning him; then I swore to myself that I will not wear my cloak except for the prayer until I have collected the Qur'ān. So I did it and took it and presented it to them. They said: 'We do not need it.'"[24]

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